Also of interest...in portraits of American cities

The Accidental City

by Lawrence N. Powell (Harvard, $30)

The Accidental City is “essential reading for anyone who wants to know the why and how of New Orleans history,” said Jeff Guinn in The Dallas Morning News. Lawrence Powell’s “hellaciously good book” about his adopted city’s first century—a period marked by smuggling, racial tensions, disasters, and pestilence—isn’t always pretty. It’s also never dull. Full of wonderful small details (in 1802, the city imported almost seven decks of cards per resident), it “reads like a fictional thriller.”

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Detroit

by Scott Martelle (Chicago Review, $25)

Scott Martelle’s “biography” of Detroit “isn’t the last word on the city’s promise and problems, but it offers an engaging, provocative introduction,” said Julia M. Klein in the Los Angeles Times. The former Detroit News staffer gives a thorough history of America’s most troubled city, from its 1701 founding by the French through the boom, bust, and rebirth of its auto industry. As deep as Detroit’s problems have been, Martelle sees real hope in the city’s bid to prosper by shrinking.

City of Scoundrels

by Gary Krist (Crown, $26)

Gary Krist’s “utterly absorbing” new book offers a lesson in how quickly a city’s social fabric can be ripped apart, said Kevin Boyle in the Chicago Tribune. Over 12 days in 1919, Chicago was rocked by a high-profile child murder, a stoning that triggered a race riot, a blimp explosion that sent fire raining down over the Loop, and a massive transit strike. “Krist handles these overlapping events with remarkable skill,” but he probably underplays how much long-term harm the race riot caused.

The Great Inversion

by Alan Ehrenhalt (Knopf, $27)

“It used to be that as Americans moved up the ladder, they moved farther away from the city,” said Richard Horan in CSMonitor.com. Recognizing that the opposite is now true—that the affluent are reoccupying core urban neighborhoods, political scientist Alan Ehrenhalt set out to explore how numerous U.S. cities are being reshaped. He’s too easily convinced that future utopias are being built, but he’s produced an “engaging read, especially for those considering a move back to the city.”